Swans on Tea

TED 2010: Death Star Laser Gun Zaps Mosqitoes Dead
Myhrvold demonstrated a “Death Star” laser gun designed to track and kill mosquitoes in flight. The device was crafted from parts purchased on eBay by scientists at Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures Laboratory.
Video here: High Speed Videography of Mosquitoes
The third video is the best one, showing the critters being [...]

a lighter bulb
A while back, gg explained Earnhsaw’s theorem and the application to magnetic levitation; you can’t trap a dipole with static fields. But that’s OK, because you want a time-varying field so that you can transfer the energy via induction. The bulb is modified to do this.
another h/t to Buzz’s owner

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video
We believe that the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better is by making it fun to do.

AT Europe: London Close-up – The Amazing Staircase
Limited by space, we melded the idea of a staircase with our client’s desire for a library to form a ‘library staircase’ in which English oak stair treads and shelves are both completely lined with books. With a skylight above lighting the staircase, it becomes the perfect place [...]

flight patterns
Long exposures of bugs under a street light.
Oh, this is just TFC. I expect I will be staking out a streetlight with my DSLR in the near future.

But for the people walking, this looks like a model railroad setup.
Tilt-Shift Trains Switzerland
You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video
Atmospheric pressure is about 10 N/cm^2, but there are a whole lot of square centimeters on that tanker — the more familiar unit is N/m^2 (Pascals), where 1 atmosphere is 101325 Pa (or possibly even more familiar 14.7 psi).
Various sites showing this have claims [...]

Oh. I mean fractal ink
You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

Easter Island Panorama

Light Pillars
Typically seen in polar regions, the vertical columns of light have been appearing along with frigid temperatures at lower latitudes this winter.
Light pillars appear when artificial light or natural light bounces off the facets of flat ice crystals wafting relatively close to the ground.

Top Ten Waterfalls in the U.S.
Of these, I’ve seen Multnomah Falls and Niagra Falls

Light Transmitting Concrete
Litracon is a combination of optical fibers and concrete. A wall made of Litracon has the strength of traditional concrete but thanks to an embedded array of optical glass fibers, which lets in the view of the outside world, such as the silhouette of trees, or passersby, that are displayed inside the building.
The [...]